My favorite tech reviewer agrees with me about how to use his e-mail inbox:
I’m not a believer in the “empty your Inbox every day” philosophy; in fact, my Inbox is my To Do list, which works great. When I’ve dealt with something, I delete or file it. When I haven’t, its presence in that list reminds me that it needs doing. (I have a lot of e-mail folders. I also have a lot of “message rules” that file incoming mail automatically into appropriate folders.)
The rest of his little post is worth reading.
I can’t agree. Every time I’ve tried something like that, I end up losing important e-mails because they slip down to the bottom of my inbox. Part of that is because sorting my inbox by priority and date at the same time doesn’t really work. I think a real ToDo list and an empty inbox are much more productive.